four

The car sputtered and rolled to a stop in the brown grass alongside the road, while Kyle screamed one long string of obscenities at the steering wheel as he slammed his fists into it over and over again. He needed to call someone, anyone, but his cell phone had been ditched out the window some time earlier.

He didn’t want them tracking him, although the street lights had been shutting off systematically as he drove in the dark so they probably had a tab on him through some other means. Thoughts of satellites, cameras, and informants rolled through his brain as sweat ran down his forehead. He was running low on cigarettes too but that was the least of his worries.

A pair of headlights was pulling up behind him. The front of the car looked familiar, the cow lamp above the driver’s side mirror looked familiar as well as the bumper guard, and even the posture gave the driver away. He could see the computer monitor light up the face of the pig in the seat, could almost hear the man rapidly typing in the license plate of the car. The blue and red rollers came on as an afterthought highlighting the dashboard and blinding him with the LED thrown back from his mirror.

The white door popped open and the officer swung his legs out, casually exiting the car and removing his three D battery flashlight from his belt at the same time. Kyle watched him wander towards the car in his mirror, trying to avoid the blinding light in the cops hand as he did so, praying that somehow he could talk his way out of this.

The end of the flashlight rapped against the glass of his door as the cop said, “Why don’t you step out of the car Mr. Zygote.”

Kyle’s hand wrapped around the tire iron he kept hidden between the seat and the center console as he muttered, “Just call me Kyle.”

It was a lazy cop, he could tell by the smile caught in the reflected light, who thought he had a man at the end of his leash. A man who was out of options and the pig had no reason to worry, he just needed to get Kyle in cuffs and in the back of the car. The man in uniform didn’t even have a hand on his gun he was just standing right outside the window, probably thinking he would help open the door.

He flipped the door open as hard as he could, throwing his weight against the inside, hitting the officer in his knees and catching the bottom of his chin with the top edge of the frame. The flashlight hit the ground as Kyle exited and lifted the iron above his head.

 

The agent turned holding a strange padded ring from the briefcase and looked at Kyle with his tired eyes. He hadn’t sat down like the man asked, and this drove a tired sight from the agent.

“If you cooperate this won’t take any time at all. Why is it that you refuse to follow any instructions?”

“Because that is not a polygraph machine, there are no hoses, no blood pressure cuffs, nothing to read my pulse. You’re lying to me.”

“We made some modifications to convert this is a portable unit. Sit down.”

Kyle fell into the seat, and the suit cleared the space between them in a moment placing a hand on his shoulder and the ring on his head, letting the two thick pads come into contact with his temples. There was a sudden shock that sent a convulsion through his body and the last thing he saw before his eyes rolled up into his head was a thin smile spreading on the agents face.

The man in the suit took a step back as the cigarette fell from Kyle’s fingers onto the carpet, letting his head fall gently to the right as he waited. When Kyle didn’t move he grabbed another of the steel chairs and set it in front of Kyle, the back against the TV on the long set of dresser drawers, and then took a seat.

Reviews

[Mockingbird]

now i;m wondering what that shock was all about. this reminds me of that twilight zone episode where they want to change the girl's looks by giving her a pig face, because that was the beautiful norm, and that her real face was ugly. anyway, it's people forcing them to conform, obey arbitrary rules, etc. you end your chapters in a real cliff-hangers. your writing is tight.

[.]

This is turning into an un-put-down-able story. I can't wait to read what happens next. You are a master of crafting the perfect atmosphere for a story like this to unravel. Extremely creative and imaginative work with many realistic elements (such as the description of the cop). Excellent work, my friend.